Chris Hein – Solo Contrabass outshines all previous Contrabass libraries. Never before, a sample library of this extent has been dedicated towards a single string instrument: Recorded with greatest care and endless details, precisely edited and merged into a practical and musical instrument for NI's Kontakt Player offering an elaborated custom-tailored user-interface with comprehensive scripting. Chris Hein – Solo Contrabass features high-grade sound quality and incredible realistic articulations. This library offers everything you have been missing with previous virtual string instruments.

You receive over 10,000 samples (4 gigabytes of sample data), 38 articulations, four different legato transitions as well as extensive phase-alignment of all samples to guarantee smooth inaudible crossfades of up to eight velocity layers. This feature-set allows the creation of authentic viola-arrangements unprecedented on a computer.

This library benefits from producer Chris Hein's 30 years spanning experience in the field of sampling and library production, resulting in a product offering highest versatility, configurability and practical use.

Chris Hein – Solo Contrabass delivers outstanding, detailed and highly expressive results as a solo instrument or as part of an ensemble – in all relevant genres ranging from classical music and film scores to gypsy-jazz, folk and pop ballads.

And there is even more: Chris Hein – Solo Contrabass provides sound-designers, composers of film- and game soundtracks and experimental musicians with special effect-sounds and uncommon articulations with partly exceptional dynamics, such as flautando, flageolets and ponticello. The special effect sounds are further supported by the internal tenfold DSP-effects-rack. Feel free to create complex sound clusters, dense atmospheres and surreal sound worlds out of a single Contrabass for incredible moments of suspense.

By using the Ensemble Maker, the solo instrument can easily be turned into an ensemble being able to take advantage of all available articulations. A voice division in the stereo image and fine detuning intensifies this effect.

Chris Hein – Solo Contrabass equally serves demanding string instrument enthusiasts as well as composers needing more than just excellent sounding samples but also comprehensive details, a full offering of articulations and a versatile adaptation to their preferred workflow.

On one hand, the instrument offers a comprehensive full sample set with all articulations being ready to play on the keyboard. Thanks to the library's modular approach on the other hand, significantly reduced variations may also be called up with fast load times and low memory requirements.

By using the clean start configuration, the instrument is initially loaded in a sustain variation while further articulations and functions can simply be added at any time if needed. This way, you may as well work fluently and efficiently on compact and mobile production systems using a lot less memory.

As with all his productions, Chris Hein decided for a close mic'ing in a dry recording environment. Combined with the twin impulse response based reverberation sections, the intentional dry sound of the library allows adapting and fitting the instrument perfectly into variable contexts. Dedicated convolution engines for the instrument's body and the room itself allow creation of a nearly arbitrary acoustic environments ranging from intimate closeness to large concert halls. In difference to the fixed acoustics of several competitive products, Chris Hein – Solo Contrabass is sonically exceptionally variable and additionally easy to combine with almost any other library being offered.

Unique functions

Perfect dynamic transitions thanks to phase alignment

Over a research period of several months, all samples have been fully aligned in phase. Accordingly, the instrument offers perfect seamless transitions of dynamic layers without sonic degradation.

Unique combination of short and long notes

The combination of long and short notes is a major problem in sample-libraries that often fail to deliver authentic sounding results. With real musical instruments, the note length often influences the attack behavior as well as the note end. Chris Hein – Solo Contrabass addresses these aspects by its "Note Head Designer" which has been significantly expanded for this library. It offers a selection of 102 attack shapes. This allows calling up twelve matching short sample variations (Shorts) along with each sustain-articulation. These shorts not only offer the corresponding correct attack-behavior but also a note-end that perfectly matches the note length.

These user-defined selections of short-note-variations are available in eight dynamic layers each and can be combined with the corresponding sustained phases, leading to astonishing realistic results that cannot be achieved using random round-robin based selections. Of course, the shorts are also available as individual articulations.

True Legato

Chris Hein – Solo Contrabass offers true legato in up to four dynamic layers for short and long note variations. The corresponding in-depth recordings and edits result in unexpected realistic sounds with perfect note-transitions. At the same time, it is possible to combine these realistic combinations with additional artificial inserted legatos.

Library extend

The performance-data of Chris Hein – Solo Contrabass directly reflect the immense investment in recordings and configuration possibilities. The instrument builds upon almost 10,000 single samples, 38 articulations and up to eight dynamic layers. This makes the library one the most in-depth sampled Contrabasses currently available.

The custom-tailored user-interface of the Kontakt Player not only offers numerous functions to adapt the library's sound character and articulations but also provides immense configuration choices to live up to specific demands and workflows. At the same time, due to pre-programmed key-switch-presets at the lower part of the keyboard, the library can also be effectively played without any need for deep edits. Thanks to four "Dynamic Modes", the "Note-Head Designer", "Key-Vibrato", "Hot-Keys" and the revolutionary concept of articulation-presets, the user-interface will give you the impression to really play this instrument live.

License Agreement

The Following End User License Agreement is included with Chris Hein Solo ContraBass. This License is only valid for the individual who has purchased an unopened, new and lawfully made copy of Chris Hein Solo ContraBass from a dealer or distributor authorized by Big Fish Audio.

"For software products produced by Best Service the German Copyright Act is effective.
All other Software products sold and/or distributed by Best Service are subject to the license agreement which is part of the respective software installer.

The samples and programs contained in any software/library produced by Best Service are licensed to the owner/buyer of the product only.
Only the purchaser of this CD is authorized to use the sounds for his music-, multimedia-, film-, radio-, games-, webcast- or similar productions and only as long as no isolated samples, loops or phrases become available for a third party.

It is not allowed to use the samples and programs within a network if this opens the possibility to be used simultaneously by multiple users.
Unauthorized copying, reproduction (including conversion and reproduction in other data formats), hire, rental, public performance, broadcasting and distribution is expressly prohibited. Best Service constantly monitors other soundware releases to check for copyright infringements, and will prosecute all piracy and copyright violations to the fullest extent of the law.

Products marked as NFR (Not For Resale) may only be used for demonstration, reviewing or testing, but not for commercial production.

EDU (educational) products  products marked as EDU may only be used by the authorized institution, their teachers, pupils and students for education purposes but not for commercial production. EDU versions are not allowed to be resold or distributed in any way."